Photo by Marty Peters
In fall 2024, Tom Farley sat among familiar faces at a Milwaukee dinner for recovery treatment professionals — except one. He reached out, and the stranger introduced himself as Tim Rabolt, the new manager of Marquette’s Collegiate Recovery Program, a campus initiative supporting students in recovery from substance use.
The encounter sparked something deeper in Farley. As the brother of the late comedian Chris Farley, Sp ’86, he knew the power of community — and the pain of addiction. As someone in long-term recovery, he didn’t hesitate to offer his services and support:
“You better get used to hearing from me.”
“Healing doesn’t happen in isolation,” explains Farley, who is community outreach director for Recovery.com and a Madison, Wisconsin-based professional speaker focused on substance misuse recovery. “I never wanted Chris to be the poster boy for overdose awareness. But recovery? That makes so much more sense.”
It was that mission that Farley saw in this new program. He saw a new path: one that didn’t glamorize Chris’ lifestyle, but rather exemplified what recovery would have meant to him, his brother and others who struggle with addiction from a young age, including while in college.
Before accepting an invitation to speak to Marquette students about recovery in April, Farley visited his family’s home in Madison. Two items stood out: a photo of Chris receiving an Alumni National Award in 1995, and a framed illustration of campus that Chris always hung in his Chicago apartments.
When Tom arrived on campus, he first stopped by the program’s space in the Wellness + Helfaer Recreation facility. There, he donated both items to the program, leaving Chris’ spirit to watch over students.
“Students think it’s the coolest thing,” Rabolt says. “Now they can look up, see Chris and feel connected — to him, to each other, to Marquette. They’re not alone.”
